Chapter 21: The Braddock Problem
Adam Stiels leaned back in his leather chair, the dim, elegant lighting of his office glinting off the polished mahogany desk. The city of New York stretched out below him, a sprawling, chaotic organism of steel, glass, and humanity. He felt a detached sense of ownership over it all, a king surveying his kingdom from a perch high above the fray. His thoughts, a relentless torrent of calculations and cold, hard logic, were currently focused on a single, impossible target. A ghost in the machine of reality itself, a man whose power was as boundless as his sanity was fleeting. Jamie Braddock.
Jamie. The Quantum Puppeteer. Captain Britain's insane brother. The Omega-level reality warper whose every waking thought is a potential apocalypse. People call him a madman, a god. I call him… a resource. An unparalleled resource. The perfect foundation for my city in the sky. The final piece of the puzzle. The ultimate sacrifice.
A mental whisper, as crisp and cold as a winter wind, slipped into his mind. So, what's next, your majesty? Another grand, morally ambiguous scheme to make us all rich and powerful, or are we going to finally take a vacation? Because I, for one, could use a beach and a very large umbrella.
Emma Frost stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, her diamond form shimmering like a perfectly cut gem in the moonlight. She was his queen, his partner in this glorious, terrible enterprise. She saw the world through the same lens of power and pragmatism as he did, but with a lingering thread of humanity that he found both fascinating and, at times, inconvenient. He allowed a wry smile to touch his lips.
"A vacation? Emma, we're building a new world. We don't have time for vacations. We have a goal. A legacy. And we need a… foundation. A very big, very powerful foundation," Adam said, his eyes never leaving the holoscreens in front of him. The screens were filled with data, a constant stream of information that was slowly, meticulously, turning a madman into a god. A madman named Jamie Braddock.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: NEW TARGET IDENTIFIED: JAMIE BRADDOCK. POWER LEVEL: OMEGA. ABILITY: REALITY-WARPING. WARNING: TARGET IS MENTALLY UNSTABLE. LIKELIHOOD OF TARGET COOPERATION: LOW. LIKELIHOOD OF TARGET CAPTURE: LOW. RECOMMENDATION: EXTENSIVE DATA ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIC PLANNING ARE REQUIRED.]
Adam gestured to one of the holoscreens, and it zoomed in on a grainy image of a man with wild, unkempt hair and a manic glint in his eyes. Jamie Braddock. The data points scrolled rapidly beside his image: known locations, psychological profiles, power fluctuations, and, most importantly, the collateral damage reports. The man's power was a weapon of mass destruction in a constant state of misfire.
"Jamie Braddock. Captain Britain's brother. Psylocke's brother. The mad god of reality. The 'quantum puppeteer,' as the internet likes to call him. You're not seriously thinking of… of what you're thinking of, are you, Adam?" Emma's mental whisper was no longer a purr. It was a hiss. A hiss of fear. A hiss of a queen who was starting to realize that her king was not a man. He was a force of nature. A force of nature that was slowly, meticulously, turning her world into a nightmare.
"Jamie Braddock. The perfect sacrifice. The perfect foundation. The perfect… ghost. A ghost that will power our new world. A ghost that will power our new home. A ghost that will power our new… legacy. A legacy that will last forever. A legacy that will make us… gods," Adam said, a sardonic smile on his face. He was a man who was playing with a power he didn't understand. A power that was slowly, meticulously, turning him into a monster. A monster that Emma was starting to think that she wanted to be a part of.
Emma Frost's POV:
I've seen a lot of monsters in my life. I've been a monster myself, a diamond-hard facade built on a foundation of ice and pain. But Adam… Adam is a different kind of monster. He's not driven by rage or hatred or even a lust for power. He's driven by logic. By cold, hard, unfeeling logic. He's a calculator, a master strategist, a force of nature that is as beautiful and terrifying as a neutron star. And he's right. Jamie Braddock is a problem. A volatile, unpredictable problem. But to see him as a resource… a sacrifice… it chills me to the bone. It's the kind of thing that Magneto would do, but Magneto is driven by a lifetime of persecution. Adam is driven by a spreadsheet. A plan. A dream. A dream that will turn a man into a ghost. And the terrifying part is… I'm starting to get on board with it. I'm starting to think that the ends justify the means. I'm starting to think that a beautiful, perfect world built on the back of a madman's mind… is a world worth living in.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: DATA ANALYSIS COMPLETE. TARGET VULNERABILITY: UNPREDICTABLE REALITY-WARPING POWER IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. TARGET'S MENTAL INSTABILITY CAN BE EXPLOITED. RECOMMENDATION: FORMULATE A PLAN THAT USES TARGET'S UNSTABLE NATURE AGAINST HIM. AVOID DIRECT CONFRONTATION.]
"So, what's the plan, Architect?" Emma asked, the title falling from her lips like a curse and a prayer. "How do you capture a man who can literally unmake you with a thought? How do you sacrifice a god?"
Adam's smile widened, a flash of white in the dim light. "You don't fight a god, Emma. You outsmart him. You don't capture a madman. You manipulate him. You don't sacrifice a man. You give him a purpose. And the plan… is simple, really. We're going to play a game. A game of cat and mouse. And we're going to make sure that the cat wins."
He's a mad genius. A sociopath with a spreadsheet. A monster with a plan. And I'm in love with him. God help me, I think I'm in love with him.
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